MOHAWK CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY COMPANY, INC.Written by Nate Hendley MOHAWK CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY COMPANY, INC. Pennsylvania. The company designs, engineers, fabricates, and installs building cladding systems. The Toledo tower was built for a company called Cleveland- Cliffs, which describes itself as “the largest flat-rolled steel provider in North America.” The client wanted the tower built quickly, in winter. Bob J. Quarture, Jr. seems awestruck as he describes how his workforce installed cladding on a 500-foot tower in Toledo, Ohio. Quarture is president of Mohawk Construction and Supply Company, Inc. of McMurray, 3 CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Not counting weather, heights, and a looming deadline, the Mohawk team faced another challenge. For a project like the Toledo tower, “exterior appendages such as piping, cable trays, and conduit trays,” are usually installed after cladding is put in place, Quarture points out This tower, however, was erected in modules, with each premade section already containing outside piping and other appendages. These extrusions meant extreme care had to be taken when erecting scaffolding and rigging around the tower. To describe the project as challenging would be “an understate- ment,” he says. “Kudos to our folks,” he says, saluting the workers who toiled on the tower. “They were operating in winds and winter conditions at 500 feet on scaffolding. That’s definitely a job I am very proud of and proud of the men on that project.” Pulse P-1Pulse P-2Pulse P-3Pulse P-4Pulse P-9 Metal Roof & Wall Systems North America • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options The Morin Pulse® Series features 5 profiles invented by our top engineers with distinct triangular ribs that emulate the electrical peaks generated by a heartbeat. The panels can be installed horizontally or vertically for different visual effects. The Toledo tower was completed in 2021, as the company’s workload began to return to life following a temporary dip during the worst of the COVID pandemic. Difficult assignments are all par for the course at Mohawk Construction, where the team excels at projects involving building exteriors. “We are a specialty contractor in the metal cladding arena. The caveat is, we don’t do glass, and we don’t do curtain walls for the most part but, along with metal cladding systems, there are stone veneer cladding systems; there is terracotta cladding; there are aluminum plate and aluminum composites. There are several different products that we use to clad the exterior beyond the metal product.” Mohawk’s work can be categorized as either architectural or industrial. The architectural category covers commercial offices, colleges, universities, and hospitals, while industrial includes automotive plants, mining operations, steel manufacturing facilities, aluminum smelters, and power stations. “We are a specialty contractor in the metal cladding arena.” Pulse P-1Pulse P-2Pulse P-3Pulse P-4Pulse P-9 Metal Roof & Wall Systems North America • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options The Morin Pulse® Series features 5 profiles invented by our top engineers with distinct triangular ribs that emulate the electrical peaks generated by a heartbeat. The panels can be installed horizontally or vertically for different visual effects. 4Pulse P-1Pulse P-2Pulse P-3Pulse P-4Pulse P-9 Metal Roof & Wall Systems North America • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options The Morin Pulse® Series features 5 profiles invented by our top engineers with distinct triangular ribs that emulate the electrical peaks generated by a heartbeat. The panels can be installed horizontally or vertically for different visual effects. Pulse P-1Pulse P-2Pulse P-3Pulse P-4Pulse P-9 Metal Roof & Wall Systems North America • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options • Over 150 profiles • 3 manufacturing locations • Custom design options The Morin Pulse® Series features 5 profiles invented by our top engineers with distinct triangular ribs that emulate the electrical peaks generated by a heartbeat. The panels can be installed horizontally or vertically for different visual effects. Project management, procurement and most fabrication work are handled in-house, while certain specialties such as structural and thermal performance or stamped drawings are usually subcontracted to engineering firms. Mohawk typically works in partnership with a general contractor. The company has established master subcontract agreements with some general contractors with which it does repeat business but remains open to new customers. In addition to the head office in McMurray, the company main- tains a warehouse and fabrication shop in Avella, Pennsylvania. It has an expansive reach and has taken on assignments in over half of the U.S. states, plus Canada and Puerto Rico. “When people say, ‘Where do you go?’ I say, ‘We go until we hit water.’ We’ve done a tunnel to cruise ships in Miami, Florida; we’ve done the Louisiana [Veterans Affairs] hospital; we’ve done work in California, Arizona, and Nevada but our sweet spot is probably the area ten to twelve hours [from] Pittsburgh,” Quarture states. Mohawk Construction and Supply Company was officially launched in 1980, but its roots go back to a firm called Viking Erectors. Back in the late 1960s and 1970s, Viking installed roof decking for building contractors and worked with decking suppliers in New Jersey and other locales. Viking and Mohawk, which has always been a contracting and supply company focused on metal panels, eventually merged. In October 2019, Quarture, a long-time Mohawk employee, purchased the entire company. He remains the sole owner today. © 2021 United Rentals, Inc. “The company also worked on the Port Miami Tunnel, a recent initiative to create direct access between Florida highways and a seaport where ships dock.” © 2021 United Rentals, Inc. 6© 2021 United Rentals, Inc.© 2021 United Rentals, Inc.The company is composed of inter-related divisions, or ‘entities’ as Quarture prefers to call them. One entity handles administra- tion, sales, and contracts while other entities are responsible for fabrication and additional services. The labor force that does the installation work still goes by the name Viking Erectors. On big assignments, Viking will augment its ranks with subcontractors. While Mohawk offers start-to-finish services, clients occa- sionally hire the firm on a labor only basis. In such cases, the general contractor or client has already purchased materials and simply wants Mohawk to erect and install the cladding. For these jobs, “Viking takes the contract in their name directly with a client and performs the contract without Mohawk being involved,” explains Quarture. The company’s upwards trajectory was blunted by the arrival of COIVD in early 2020. The pandemic had a direct impact on Mohawk Construction; one of the company co-founders died of the disease, and several projects were put on hold. “Like everybody, we had a lot of ups and downs—a lot of downs at first. We had contracts cancelled. People really didn’t know what to do,” recalls Quarture. Fortunately, some projects were considered essential, so Mohawk was able to continue working even as sales took a slump. During “By the very nature of our business, our work is fraught with peril. If you’re not aware of potential problems, then that is a problem.” 8the worst of COVID, office staff members were given the oppor- tunity to work remotely, while masks, hand sanitizer, distancing policies, and comprehensive cleaning efforts of tools, workspac- es, break, and lunch rooms were implemented. “Our sales kind of slacked off. Now, we have a backlog and seem to be doing a lot better,” Quarture states. The company has roughly fifteen office staff and fifty-five iron workers in the field at present. The number of field workers expands if additional resources are required on a project. Field staff members are unionized, and Mohawk has “an internation- al agreement with the ironworkers. Anywhere we travel in the U.S., most of the time, fifty percent of the guys we use are from the local union hall and fifty percent are our guys whom we send as travelers,” he explains. The Toledo tower is not the only high-profile project in Mohawk’s portfolio. The company has also worked for Amazon in Ohio on assignments that entailed “a large requirement of manpower and equipment. We own a lot of our own equip- ment, man lifts, forklifts. Mobilizing that equipment, mobilizing the men [was a challenge],” says Quarture. The company also worked on the Port Miami Tunnel, a recent initiative to create direct access between Florida highways and a seaport where ships dock. It received a $2 million contract to install a complicated architectural wall cladding system. Next >